The present specification relates to improvements introduced in a disk-type oil collector designed to recover oil or thick liquids spilt on water.
As is known to those skilled in the art, many types of equipment are used to collect oil when spilt on water, mainly those that employ a plurality of oleophile disks suitably disposed on shafts driven by their own motors, with these disks being held partially immersed in water and enabling collection of the floating oil clinging to the surfaces of each disk which, when rotating, deposits it on stationary scrapers that direct the flow of the collected oil.
This type of equipment, though widely used, only displays satisfactory rates of efficiency in limited operating conditions, with this same efficiency being severely affected when the oil to be collected is accompanied by solid floating matter, such as leafs, rubble, chips of wood in general and an interminable variety of other types of trash.
As a rule, this oil-floating debris is equally directed to the oleophile disks, in view of the flow given rise to by the actual collection of oil caused by rotation of the said disks.
It so happens that, above a given size, these solid residues begin to interfere with the proper operation of the equipment, colliding with the disks in rotary motion and blocking the free circulation of oil to the disks.
It is quite common for this floating trash to impair the operation of the suction pumps drawing in the oil collected by the disks and retrieved by the scrapers, often causing the overall breakdown thereof and disabling equipment that, almost always and in spite of its limitations, performs an especially important job.